Vacation Guide to the Solar System: Science for the Savvy Space Traveler!
Olivia Koski and Jana Grcevich
Penguin Books
Nonfiction, Science
Themes: Space Stories
***+
Description
With the dawning of the Space Age, humanity has expanded its horizons... and its vacation options. For those bored with the offerings of our home planet, whole new worlds - literally - are available for your entertainment. Explore the lava tubes of the Moon. Sail the skies of Neptune or Venus. Witness the spectacular sunsets of Mars. Visit the rings of Saturn for a destination wedding you and your guests won't soon forget. The Intergalactic Travel Bureau offers highlights and travel tips for the Moon and other planets in the solar system, as well as dwarf planet Pluto and its Kuiper Belt companions.
Review
Using the space tourism gimmick, the authors present space facts and figures in a format palatable for the average armchair stargazer like myself, albeit with
some factual blurring around the edges to allow for hypothetical advances in technology (such as underground hotels to survive Mercury's mercurial temperature
changes and floating cities for gas giant planets) that would make such trips viable. Naturally, the planets need little enhancement to boggle the mind and dazzle
the imagination, even as actual conditions indicate just how difficult mere survival, let alone vacationing, would be beyond Earth's atmosphere. Features and
conditions are compared to Earth standards to give us layfolk a sense of scale... not that it's truly possible to fully envision the system's many weird and
wondrous phenomena, the extremes in atmospheres and temperature swings and geology, using our uniquely habitable planet as a measuring rod. The odd touch of humor
lightens the mood and contributes to the casual presentation, as do vintage-style travel posters of the solar system's highlights (interspersed with actual
photographs from various space agencies.) Published in June 2017, the information is pretty up to date, including named features on Pluto and other recent
discoveries and developments.
If I'd read this in paperback, I think it would've merited a solid Good rating. Unfortunately, I read it as an eBook through Overdrive... and there are issues with
the formatting that directly interfered with my enjoyment. I had to keep re-orienting my tablet, trying to get dark text not to overlap dark sections of photographs
- an endeavor that did not always succeed, and grew frustrating, as each turn or adjustment interrupted my reading. Changing font sizes and other display options
had no effect, so I lost out on a few stretches of what looked like fascinating information due to my inability to read black on black. Since I read it as an eBook,
I must rate it as an eBook, and therefore had to shave a half-star for this annoyance.
Otherwise, aside from occasionally getting a little too clever for its own good, I recommend this one to anyone interested in the solar system's many marvels.